The black-and-white rocket was lowered from Complex 40 Monday afternoon after spending two days atop the pad. The Falcon 9, which weighs more than 30,000 pounds empty, was raised vertically around midday Saturday for two days of fit checks.

Hmm... i didnt see this coming. I never knew they were going to take it down again.

Quote:

But engineers have a long road ahead before clearing the rocket is ready to head skyward this summer.

"It has some more paces to go through. This rocket will come down, it will be disassembled, and then pieces will go back to either test sites or Hawthorne, get into final configuration for flight, and then be returned for the first flight sequence," said Tim Buzza, vice president of launch operations.

Seems like this was only a test run for lifting operations. They're gonna take it down for further test and flight configurations. This is probably the main reason for a launch in summer and also maybe due to the problem below.

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"We will be going vertical again later in the week to demonstrate operational responsiveness and to collect additional data from vehicle instrumentation," said Brian Mosdell, SpaceX's launch site director at Complex 40.

Prepare for some for action, if you know what i mean

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The company will build a large integration hangar on the south side of the pad. The building will stretch 225 long and 75 feet wide and stand about 50 feet tall.

Metal for the hangar structure is already at the Cape, and fabrication is expected to begin next week, according to Mosdell.

If you mean they'd make orbit and then claim they didn't, you can't really hide satellites of the size that you'd launch on an F9. It would be seen and the trajectory calculated by amateurs within a month of launch.

They also seem to have achieved another milestone towards reusability of Dragon according to their homepage:

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HAWTHORNE, CA â€“ February 23, 2009 â€“ Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announces the passing of a significant technical milestone in the development of its Dragon spacecraft with the successful arc jet testing of PICA-X high performance heat shield material.

Subjected to temperatures as high as 1850 degrees Celsius (3360 degrees Fahrenheit), the tests simulated the reentry heating conditions that will be experienced by the Dragon capsule. Panels of the high performance carbon-based material will protect cargo and crew during the spacecraft's return from Earth orbit.

and

Quote:

The Dragon capsule will enter the Earth's atmosphere at around 7 kilometers per second (15,660 miles per hour), heating the exterior of the shield to up to 1850 degrees Celsius. However, just a few inches of the PICA-X material will keep the interior of the capsule at room temperature.

So might that mean that their upper stage is close to reusability as well? Might the launch be delayed due to this?